rather odd, I had my equipment out last night to try to shoot Jupiter, and what was working a couple of weeks ago wasn't working. I have a ASI 120MM Mini on a 60mm f/4 refractor, and job number one was to plate solve to sync to the desired bit of sky I wanted to point at. But I consistently had Ekos telling me "insufficient stars" being reported although it appeared to have plenty. I tried playing with exposures, gain, binning, and focus but other than a couple of solves that magically happened, I was unable to get consistent plate solves. 

oh, I tried to turn on logging as suggested in the "insufficient stars" message but the message but I couldn't figure out exactly what it meant about turning on logging; when I checked the logs window it looked like I had logging on, I switched between various logging verbosity settings but no new log folders were created when failing to plate solve - so either it was on and not logging, or the instructions provided to turn logging on were inadequate

what strategy should I use to troubleshoot this and figure out how to get it working?

 

Read More...

So I was able to get Ekos taking a sequence of 100 frames without problems, but on re-running the sequence (the third time I think?) I got another crash... without going to inordinate lengths to make this work, I think I'm going to say that while I CAN get KStars and Ekos to run on the RPi Zero W, it is not reliable. Given I can't use Ekos to drive the Star Adventurer Pro mount anyway and I was only going to use Ekos for sequencing (and plate solving to help with targeting, I will have to figure out another solution for that) I will probably just write a script calling gphoto2 to do the sequences  

Read More...

yeah on the off chance it would help I went and unticked everything except Focus on receiving an image and Limited resources mode, and IT IS WORKING! I'm going to move the gear outside seeing as it is the first clear night in a while and see if I can't take a few hundred frames without any problems...

Read More...

I suspect it is memory too, and I appreciate the practical suggestion for minimising memory use! I will be using scp to transfer images off automatically, and the device has no display, so the preview is totally unnecessary. I'll give it a go and report back!

Read More...

I am trying to run Ekos on a minimal raspberry pi OS "buster" crafted by Harald Martin on CloudyNights (see www.cloudynights.com/topic/746190-astrop...-raspberry-pi-zerow/ ) but while I can successfully take ONE image, KStars and Ekos die very soon after that capture... (sped up 300%)
youtu.be/pbwm9QG4lEQ

Any ideas what direction I should look to figure out what is going on?

Read More...

Hey that was it! I turned off "Force BULB" on the INDI Control Panel > Options tab and I can get fast shutter speeds for lunar and solar now!

I was only using the BULB setting because in reading the FAQs it said:
Cannot connect to DSLR camera?
The following is a list of checks you need to verify before contacting support regarding DSLR connectivity issues:
...

• Make sure the camera is set to Bulb/Manual mode. In some models you need to rotate the dial first to Manual then change the setttings to make it Bulb.

kstars: 3.5.3 Stable
OS is Stellarmate 1.5.8 / Raasbain GNU/Linux 10 (buster)
gphoto2: 2.5.20
libgphoto2 2.5.27.1

Read More...

the console SAYS stuff like:
20201-05-26T09:01:27 Capturing 0.001-second image
but actually that one was a 70s exposure!

Read More...

Ekos seems to have no problem talking to the D500, and I *do* have the shutter preset to Bulb and exposure controls to M(anual). But although I have the exposure settings set to say 0.001s (for lunar) I am seeing 11s or 23s exposures when I 'Capture a preview' or run a sequence. 

In the INDI Control panel for the D500, in Image Settings I have ISO 800, In Main Control I can set the Presets to 1/1000... can set the exposure to 0.001s, click Set... again, it does not seem to use the configured settings.

Any ideas?

Read More...